Many industries have need for materials having emulsion breaking activity, such as materials active in causing the resolution of an oil-in-water emulsion into separate continuous oil and water phases. Such industries include the oil production industry where waters from the oil fields contain undesirable oil dispersed therein, and in this instance undesirable solids. Other examples are the pulping and paper producing industries, the metal and automotive industries.
New materials having activity in emulsion breaking, or emulsion resolution, applications and processes are highly desired and sought. Not only are active materials of greater efficiencies than those presently available desirable, but also active materials of different chemical compositions in and of themselves, to augment the available selection of materials and widen the choices for any given need. This latter aspect, the widening of choices per se, is particularly important in such emulsion breaking and oily water clarification applications where environmental conditions influencing the process can vary significantly.